The present invention relates to a mobile protective cover for sliding guides, in particular those of a mobile machine tool part.
In machine tools equipped with alternating parts that move on linear guides, the guides are normally fitted with protective covers, designed to prevent accidents as well as to protect the guides from dust, wood or metal shavings or products of working which could lead to mechanical damage to the guides.
The present invention concerns, in particular, a cover of the type comprising a set of rigid, sheet metal panels, which overlap and are connected to one another and are guided with the possibility of sliding relative to one another in a direction tangential to a reciprocal contact surface, so as to vary the length of the cover, whose end panels are connected to the mobile part and to the machine structure, each time according to the movements of the mobile part along the guides.
The movement of the cover panels is made possible by pulling means which, in covers of the known type, are pins and slots, positioned in an orderly fashion between all of the pairs of contiguous panels of the cover.
Due to the thinness of the panels, the slots are not very deep, nor are the pins very long; this leads to various disadvantages, including: rapid deterioration of the cover, following the high levels of mechanical stress that cause the pins to wear rapidly and disengage from the slots; noisy cover operation, due to the sliding and impact of metal elements.
The aim of the present invention is, therefore, to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages by means of a lasting metal cover, with silent, reliable operation.